Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect:Please include the reason why this explanation is incomplete, like this: {{incomplete|reason}}If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

The comic is an illustration of passing time. Each image is relatively meaningless to the viewer by itself; the only way to perceive time is to "wait for it" and see how things evolve. Thus, time is in the viewer's perception, not in each individual frame. It is not entirely clear if the "wait for it" title text references the viewer having to wait for the next frame of the comic, or whether it refers in some way to the content of the comic itself (e.g. the characters waiting for something).

Format

This comic is actually a series of images which play as a rough animation (the image on this page is an animated compilation of the images). The images are in the process of being revealed slowly over the course of time. As of May 7, 2013, the comic has been running for more than 1000 hours (over 42 days), and more than 1100 frames have been revealed.

For the first 120 hours, a new frame replaced the previous frame every 30 minutes, at :00 and :30 of each hour; the remaining frames have since been revealed every hour, on the hour. The updating is done server-side, with the server redirecting the image link (time.png) to a different image every hour. The source images have very long random-character names, making it virtually impossible to access future frames. There is no apparent way to view past frames on the official XKCD website, and only the current frame is posted there at any given time. Given the unique nature of this comic, several websites have been dedicated to tracking it, and its full run can be viewed at some of these sites (see below).

At 850 hours (36 days 10 hours) the first "scene" of the comic ended at frame 971 with a fade to white, ushering in a second scene from frame 972. Normalized pictures are also available here.

Plot

Scene 1: Sand Castles and the Sea

Megan and Cueball are alone on a sandy beach near the sea. As the story unfolds, Megan and Cueball begin to build a sand castle on the beach. The two continue to expand the castle back from the beach as the scene zooms out. Briefly they have fun launching small objects at the castle with a trebuchet before continuing the build.

Each of Cueball and Megan leave the scene for extended periods at times but always return to continue building. They add what appears to be scaffolding and ladders to expand the castle skyward. All the while, Cueball and Megan wax philosophically about the nature of the sea, the feeding river, the rising tides, and what else lies in the world. In the end, the two decide to go off and explore the world as the sea begins to erode the castle and the scene fades to white.

One other character appears in the comic as of the end of Scene 1: A girl with a beret, similar to Beret Guy, briefly appears to view the castle, and then leaves. She returns in the last couple of frames, as the fade to white completes, dragging something.

Scene 2 (in progress)

Cueball and Megan are walking with bags across a relatively level surface. They stop for a drink. Megan indicates she has never been so far "this way". At frame 997, they sit down and in frame 998, the scene shifts from a front view to a profile view. The terrain looks like frame 1, albeit from a wider angle, showing they are walking along the coast. They begin to stand in frame 1001 and the scene returns to a front view.

They begin walking again and reach a river they haven't seen before. They sit on the river bank and after the ground crumbles beneath him Cueball slips in and loses his bottle. Megan helps Cueball out, and the two try to lasso the bottle but are unsuccessful. Cueball contemplates swimming out to get it, but Megan says it is too dangerous. Later when Megan gets too close to the edge, Cueball senses danger and pulls her back.

After a small talk both agree to find a ford. After walking for awhile, Megan realizes that the river was wider than they realized. The branch of the river they were walking along joins up with another branch and the opposite bank eventually comes into view.

They stop for a break and Cueball dozes off and mumbles in his sleep. They discuss this river and the difference between it and theirs. First mention of other people. They decide to continue upriver.

The terrain begins to slope noticeably uphill. They wonder if others have noticed the rise of the ocean and mention that they live in tents. They walk deeper into the dunes, having fun by jumping and sliding. Megan falls after jumping too high.

A bird appears in the sky. They watch it until it's gone, then begin walking again. Some vegetation appears, grass and then small trees. They stop and nap beneath a larger tree, seeming to have never seen one before.

After a rest Cueball goes off to explore. He picks some berries and finds a campfire pit, then walks back to Megan. A small chipmunk appears near the fire pit for one frame.

Back at the tree, Cueball gives Megan some berries and tells her about finding evidence of other people.

Megan is questioning Cueball more about that campfire findings but eventually they did decide to move to the river because Megan is thirsty.

There is also a wiki dedicated to this particular comic and the related forum thread, at xkcd-time.wikia.com/. There is also a physics simulation of the trebuchet written in JavaScript/HTML5, available at thred.github.io/xkcd-time-catapult/. The code is hosted on GitHub, too. There is an Android app which notifies users when a new image is posted and lets them view the image from within the app, available on Google Play. The code for the app is hosted on GitHub and encourages contribution of new features or enhancements. An hourly updated graph of the rising water level is available at [1]

Linux users can do the following to create an automatically-updating window of the comic in their workspace: install feh then

feh -x -R 3600 -g 300x215 http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time.png &

... then, can make this sticky; always-on-top; etc...

Transcript

Scene 1

+00:00 [Megan and Cueball sitting on a sandy beach near a body of water.]

+01:00 [Megan looks back.]

+02:00 [Cueball looks back.]

+03:00 [Megan looks up.]

+04:00 [Megan reclines. Cueball looks at her.]

+06:00 [Cueball gets up and inspects the water.]

+07:30 [Cueball "puts a toe in the water".]

+09:00 [Cueball returns to sit next to the still reclining Megan.]

+09:30 [Megan sits up.]

+12:00 [Megan and Cueball start to build a sandcastle.]

+25:30

Cueball: Later

Megan: Bye

[Cueball leaves, Megan continues to build the sandcastle.]

+37:00 [Cueball returns and both continue to build.]

+43:30 [Megan leaves, Cueball continues to build.]

+51:00 [Cueball accidentally slips and destroys part of the castle.]

+61:30 [Cueball completes the sandcastle and leaves.]

+73:00 [Cartoon zooms out, showing more construction has been taking place off-screen to the left.]

+81:00 [Megan plants flags on original sandcastle.]

+83:00 [Megan sits down at the beach.]

+83:30 [Cueball finished sandcastle on the left and moves to Megan at the beach.]

+84:30

Megan: Wanna swim?

Cueball: Yeah.

[They both enter the water and exit the picture.]

+86:00 [Castle at far left begins to crumble.]

+87:00 [Megan back on the beach, Cueball off screen.]

Megan: Pffthh

Megan: *cough*

Cueball: You OK?

Megan: Just got some in my mouth.

+91:00 [Cueball takes down two flags and makes the two sandcastles into one large sandcastle.]

+106:30 [A rock, fired by Megan with a small trebuchet, smashes part of the castle Cueball just finished.]

+107:30 [Megan partially re-enters the scene from stage right.]

+108:00 [Megan has fully re-entered the scene, pulling the small trebuchet into the scene with her.]

+111:30 [Cueball joins Megan at the trebuchet and launches one himself. They alternate launching projectiles.]

+114:30 [Cueball launches an object straight up into the air.]

+115:30 [They run as the object falls back down. Cueball leaves a few frames later, Megan stays and works on building a large mound in the destroyed center of the castle.]

+186:00 [Cueball returns, Megan is working on top of a large mound she's built, as she turns around and stands up to see Cueball, she slips down the side of the mound. Cueball rushes in and helps her rebuild it and flatten out the top.]

Cueball: There must be other rivers. Maybe something is wrong with them.

+734:00

Megan: I like our castle.

+735:00

Cueball: I think it's going to go away.

+736:00

Megan: Yeah.

+738:00

Megan: Do you think there are other rivers?

Cueball: Something is adding water to the sea.

+739:00

Megan: Does it have to be water? Maybe something is adding more land somewhere. And it's making the sea overflow.

+740:00

Cueball: Or maybe it's just raining somewhere. We have no idea what's out there.

+741:00

Megan: Yeah.

+743:00

Megan: Want to find out?

Cueball: Yes.

+744:00

Megan: I'll get some bags.

+760:00

Megan: bye.

+761:00 [Megan exits.]

+775:00 [The entire scene begins a slow fade to white. The 'tide' continues to rise and the castle on the right continues to be subsumed.]

+830:00 [Beret Girl drops in for one frame. The fade and tide continue.]

+847:00 [Beret Girl drops in again, dragging something. The fade and tide continue.] (In fact, this detail was not visible without an aid to undo the fade.)

+850:00 [The entire scene is white.]

Scene 2

+851:00 [New scene: ground.]

+852:00 [Megan and Cueball walking with bags.]

+858:00 [Cueball pauses and Megan looks back at him.]

+864:00 [Still walking.]

Cueball: Have you ever been this far?

Megan: Not this way.

+867:00 [Megan and Cueball stop and have a drink from flasks in their bags.]

+870:00 [Megan continues walking.]

+871:00 [Cueball continues walking.]

+875:00 [They stop, sit and eat. The perspective changes showing they're in a landscape similar to time +0:00.]

+879:00 (frame 1000) [Megan reclines.]

+880:00 [They prepare to continue.]

+881:00 [They continue walking. The perspective returns to "parallel to the beach".]

+883:00 [Still walking.]

Megan: Maybe the sea doesn't end.

+884:00

Cueball: We haven't walked very far.

+885:00

Megan: Yeah.

Megan: But that's what the first part of not ending looks like.

+897:00 [Still walking.]

Megan: If we don't find something today, we'll have to start using the steam bottle.

Cueball: Ugh!

+902:00 [They stop, having come to another body of water.]

+903:00

Megan: Yes.

Cueball: Yes what?

+904:00 [The scene zooms out briefly, showing the opposite shore.]

Megan: There are other rivers.

+908:00 [Cueball, having sat on the bank to drink, falls into the river when the bank beneath him crumbles. Megan manages to grab him and pull him back to dry land, but he loses his water bottle in the process.]

+914:00 [Megan pulls out a lasso. Cueball and her both use it to try and grab the bottle. They fail.]

+920:00

Cueball: The river isn't moving that fast. Maybe I could-

Megan: Too dangerous.

Cueball: Yeah.

+921:00

Megan: It's ok. It was an accident.

+923:00 [The bottle slips below the surface.]

Megan: You're right, though.

Cueball: About what?

+924:00

Megan: The river's not moving very fast.

+928:00

Megan: It can't be flowing much faster than we walk.

Megan: Even if it's as deep as it is wide, I don't think it's enough water.

+929:00

Cueball: Yeah

+931:00

Cueball: And this river doesn't look broken.

Megan: Yeah.

+932:00

Cueball: It's pretty neat, though.

Megan: Yeah.

+935:00 [Cueball grabs Megan's hand and gently pulls her back from the edge.]

Megan: "Everything" is a little ambitious. We barely understand anything.

Cueball: Yeah.

+952:00

Cueball: But that's what the first part of understanding everything looks like.

+972:00

Cueball: If nothing else, I'm glad we found this river. It's not much farther from home than ours at its driest.

+975:00

Megan: Oh. This river is even bigger than it looked.

+976:00 [The scene zooms out to show the opposite bank again. It continues to zoom out slowly, revealing that the "opposite bank" is actually just an island in the much, much larger river. Cueball and Megan continue to walk away from the viewer.]

+990:00 [Megan and Cueball finally pass the end of the island. The scene zooms out even farther once more to show the far bank.]

+1001:00 [The scene returns to original zoom, with Megan and Cueball looking out over the river.]

+1002:00

Megan: Maybe it is big enough to fill the sea.

+1003:00 [The two rest for a while. Cueball fills a bottle with river water. They both drink. Cueball lays down and naps.]

+1009:00

Cueball (talking in his sleep): Our rope isn't strong enough.

+1010:00

Megan: What?

Cueball (talking in his sleep): Hold this or you'll fall.

+1012:00 [Megan pokes Cueball with a stick. He wakes up, groggily.]

+1021:00

Cueball: When our river gets too big, it fills with stuff. Wood and leaves and things from the people in the hills.

+1022:00

Cueball: This river doesn't look like that.

+1023:00

Megan: Maybe it only flows through empty places.

+1025:00

Megan: If this river isn't what's making the sea rise, we need to get past it. Either way, we continue upriver.

+1038:00

Megan: I wonder how high the water is now.

+1039:00

Cueball: I wonder if other people have noticed. It's been days.

Megan: Not a lot of us by the shore this time of year. A few kids, maybe.

+1040:00

Megan: It'd have to rise a lot higher before any tents got wet.

+1057:00

Cueball: This river flows from bigger hills than ours.

+1058:00

Megan: If we don't reach a crossing soon, we'll be in them. (the bigger hills)

+1060:00 [Megan and Cueball stand on the edge of a cliff and look down.]

+1063:00

Megan: I wonder if it's possible to swim in.

+1091:00

Megan: You OK?

+1092:00

Cueball: Just thinking.

+1097:00

Megan: Should we follow the river through there?

Cueball: Hmm.

+1098:00

Cueball: Let's see if we can go over those and rejoin it further up.

+1112:00

Megan: It must get windier up here.

+1129:00 [Megan takes a jump off the top of a hill while Cueball watches.]

+1140:00

Cueball: OOF.

Megan: These are bigger than they looked.

+1144:00 [Megan tries another jump, but lands hard, in a heap.]

+1155:00 [A bird appears in the sky, flying towards them. Megan and Cueball stop and watch it for the next few frames before it disappears behind them.]

+1193:00 [Grass appears.]

+1198:00 [The first small tree appears.]

+1216:00 [They come to a bigger tree, taller than them.]

+1218:00

Megan: Neat.

+1220:00 [Megan yawns audibly.]

+1221:00 [Cueball sits beneath the tree.]

+1222:00

Megan: The river isn't much farther...

+1223:00 [Cueball leans against the tree. Megan gives in and joins him, laying with her head on her pack. Cueball switches to laying on his pack, as well.]

+1257:00

Cueball: Berries?

Megan: Ooh, Thanks!

+1259:00

Cueball: There are people here. Or were.

Cueball: I found some sort of campsite.

+1260:00

Megan: Recent?

Cueball: Looked like it'd been empty for a while.

+1262:00

Megan: I'm thirsty. Let's get to the river.

Cueball: Yeah.

+1265:00

Megan: They leave anything good behind?

Cueball: Just some wood. Not enough to build a raft.

Frame by Frame Breakdown

Below is the list of all the frames of the comic, in the order that they were revealed. The given times denote the time since the comic was initially released on midnight, March 25, 2013, Eastern Daylight Savings Time (UTC - 0400).